PSALM 6 FOR JANUARY 6

January 6 2015 - Psalm 6

O Lord, do not punish me in Your anger.  2 Have mercy on me and be gracious to me, for I am a weak man with feet of clay.  3  I feel like my bones are turning to dust.  I am discouraged.  My heart is broken.  My will is beaten down by this world around me.  

Can I ask the honest question of when You are going to step up and fight for me? 4 Please come back into view.  Rescue my soul.  I believe in Your unfailing and steadfast love.  5 It’s just that if You don’t save me from death how will I be able to sing your praise.  Dead men can’t voice praise.  Save me because of Your unfailing love.  6 I am worn out from crying all night long.  Sleep evades me. 7 My eyes are sore from tears.  Grief clouds my vision.  My enemies seem to have the upper hand at every turn...I am surrounded.

8 Get away from me all you evildoers.  Back off!  My Lord has heard the voice of my cry.  9 The Lord has heard my prayers...my cry for grace.  He receives my honest prayer into his heart.  10 Let all my enemies be ashamed and terrified Let them turn back and be overtaken by their shame like a flash flood.  Let them lose heart and be ashamed of what they’ve done when they realize that justice is on its way.

Sometimes when we have had a bad day we think that God is mad at us.  That He is a Karma God and our misdeeds have caught up to us and, even though we tried, we somehow screwed it up and He is gonna smite us.  

But then when we take a step back and calm down a little maybe we realize that we live in a broken world and there are actually broken people all around us.  And some of them are so broken that they want to break more things and the people around them. David had some of these destructive people after him.  They wanted him dead.  

We may not have people after our very lives but they would like to hurt us. They would like to take away our joy.  They would like to keep us down.  

This world can wear us out and suck the vitality right out of us.  We can be exhausted emotionally from just navigating the storms that come our way.  

And we ask the question, “God, are You even there?”  The delayed response is very delayed.  And we are worn out out from the unresolved conflict and the walking on eggshells and the stress and the pain.

But when I look back to what God got me through before I am reminded that His love is unrelenting and He is good and He knows what He is doing.  And that His justice will prevail.  That He will show up and that every enemy of His will be ashamed at the sight of Him.